The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Pierce Bainbridge

Posts tagged “Peru”

The case of the day is MMA Consultants 1, Inc. v. Republic of Peru (2d Cir. 2017). MMA claimed it was the holder of bearer bonds Peru issued in 1875. In 2015, it sent demand letters to the Peruvian embassy seeking payment, but it received no response. It sued for breach of contract. Peru moved to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, arguing that it was immune from suit under the FSIA. The district court agreed, and MMA appealed.

The case of the day is SA Luxury Expeditions, LLC v. Latin America for Less, LLC (N.D. Cal. 2015). SA Luxury Expeditions was a travel agency focusing on Latin America. It sued Bernard Schleien, a resident of Peru and a competitor, on a claim of unfair competition and computer fraud and abuse. SA sought to serve process by way of a letter rogatory under the Inter-American Convention (Peru is a party to the IAC but not the Hague Service Convention). However, SA was unable to get a status update from the Peruvian central authority, and so it sought leave to make service by alternate means under FRCP 4(f)(3).

The case of the day, A.O.A. v. Doe Run Resources Corp. (E.D. Mo. 2011), is a little outside the official Letters Blogatory Scope of Coverage, but I cover it because it concerns two of our recurring themes: aggressive use of the FAA’s statute permitting removal of New York Convention cases, and Latin American toxic torts such as the Lago Agrio case in Ecuador or the banana pesticide case in Nicaragua. For nearly a century, La Oroya, Peru has been home to smelters and refineries that produce copper, lead, zinc, and other metals from ores mined in the Andes Mountains. In 1974, the government of Peru nationalized the facility and transferred it to a Peruvian state-owned firm, Centromin. In the 1990s, Centromin determined that the…